This invention relates to an apparatus for disintegrating a bale of fibrous material.
Throughout the years, fibrous material has been collected and stored in a variety of forms for later use in a variety of applications. For example, animal food stuffs may be collected in a mass either loosely held together under its own weight as in a stack or bound by twine or other securing means as in a cylindrical rectangular or other configuration. As used in this invention, the term bale shall include any type of fibrous material which is in a collective configuration irrespective of whether it is bound by twine or loosely forming a stack. When collected to form a bale, such fibrous material may be stored or transported or both for use at the same or different location or at a later time for a variety of purposes including animal feed, bedding, etc.
A variety of methods and machines have been developed over the years for converting a bale of fibrous material into disintegrated form. Such machines have included a variety of hoists for lifting the bale from the ground and placing it upon the machine where the bale is shredded or cut with the disintegrated fibrous material thereafter being discharged either at a stationary point or linearly as the machine is moved across the ground.
Many of such machines have involved complicated cutting or shredding assemblies wherein the fibrous materials frequently become clogged and/or wherein the disintegrated fibrous material is frequently found to be of non-uniform particle size.